Pat O'Toole explains why you shouldn't waste time looking for the easy path; start improving your projects' performance one day at a time and you will be successful – whether or not you EVER achieve Level 2.

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A few weeks before the Twin Cities Marathon, our running club traditionally
hosts a 20-mile training run followed immediately by a potluck lunch. To get
runners of varying skill to finish around the same time, we have the slower
runners start out at 8am, the medium runners at 8:30am, and the fast runners at
9am.

A couple of years ago, I participated in the run and went out with the medium
runners. At mile 17, I happened across a 285-pound "runner," who was
lumbering along at a pace slower than most people walk. He was breathing heavily
(no pun intended), sweating profusely and looking as though he was about to pass
out. I was convinced that it was only the thought of the pending feast that kept
him moving at all!

My first concern was medical, "Are you all right?" I asked.
"I'm doing OK," he replied, "but I'm sure glad I
started out at 6:30." After he assured me that he was going to make it, I
promised to save him a plate of grub, bid him a fond farewell, and left him to
ponder Newton's Third Law of Motion.

The run ended at an elementary school where we used the cafeteria for our
luncheon. The "moving mountain" was the primary topic of conversation
as the returning runners loaded up their plates and took their seats. "How
could a runner allow himself to get into such bad shape?" was the question
of the hour. "No 'real runner' would ever allow himself to fall
apart like that."

With lunch just about over, the first runner to set out became the last one
to finish. As promised, I had saved him some food, and so I brought it to the
table where had he plopped down with a sense of self-satisfaction. A few members
of our running club are newspaper reporters; they joined us at the table, each
carrying another plate of food for our beleaguered colleague. The questions
started slowly but the pace picked up as his story unfolded.

It turns out that about a year prior, Bill had tipped the scale at 400 pounds
and decided right then to turn his life around. His friends scoffed when he made
a public commitment to run a marathon. After consulting a sports doctor, he
started off slowly, but still managed to drop over 100 pounds in the next 11
months. With only three weeks to go he was still hoping to run the full 26.2
miles within the six-hour time limit  and darned if he didn't do it!
Bill's miraculous feat was featured in Runner's World magazine 
an experience that most of us "real runners" will probably never
enjoy. OK, to the moral of the story...

At every SEPG conference there is at least one presentation entitled
something like "How We Achieved Level 2 in Three Months." These
sessions are jammed with hopeful newbies praying for the miracle of
instantaneous success. They could probably learn more from talking to Bill.
First, they could learn that "one data point does not a trend make."
They shouldn't judge the distance the presenters have traveled by only
seeing them cross the finish line. After all, the presenters can run a 100-yard
dash quicker than your organization can run a marathon.

They could also learn that you really can set aggressive goals and
achieve them. But, more importantly, they could reflect on the fact that even if
Bill had NOT successfully completed the marathon that year  he had still
dropped 100 pounds and was a better man for it. Bill's life didn't
miraculously improve because he ran a marathon; his life improved because he
worked out every day for 11 months.

Don't waste time looking for the easy path; start improving your
projects' performance one day at a time and you will be successful 
whether or not you EVER achieve Level 2. As an anonymous marathoner said,
"The miracle isn't that I finished... the miracle is that I had
the courage to start." So take that first step  and enjoy the
journey!